Hospital-type bed structure



W. J. HELTON Dec. 22, 1970 TYPE BED STRUCTURE HOSPITAL- Filed July 10,1968 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR i g y? ATTORfiEYS Dec. 22; 1970 w, J. HLTQN 3,548,426

HOSPITAL-TYPE BED STRUCTURE Filed. July 10, 1968 2 Sheets -Sheet 2 i FIG.4

I 7 l2 6 /0 I! IF CIT. l5 /5 ll FIGS 3 LJ 1 I L INVENTOR 4 35 27 I j ,5BY

36 M QM? ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,548,426 HOSPITAL-TYPE BEDSTRUCTURE William J. Helton, Affton, Mo., assignor to Foster Bros.

Manufacturing Company, St. Louis, Mo., a corporation of Delaware FiledJuly 10, 1968, Ser. No. 743,695 Int. Cl. A47c 21/00 US. Cl. -331 8Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Beds ofthe type described have had vertically adjustable side guards mounteddirectly upon the bedstead end frame members. Usually the side guardsupports are not readily applicable to, or separable from, the bedframing and the side guards have been adjustable vertically on thebedstead independently of the spring and mattress carrying part of thebed even though the spring and mattress were also adjustable.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION One of the objects of the present invention isto mount safety side guards on the bed spring and mattress supportingstructure. Preferably the side rails extend between the bedstead endfrome members and are independent of the vertical adjustment of themattress carrying structure and supplementary to the mattress carryingstructure. Another object of the invention is to facilitate the verticaladjustment of the spring and mattress support structure, at least at oneend of the bed, and to simplify the mechanism for such adjustment. Thesefeatures and other improvements as will appear below are attained by theconstruction illustrated in the accompanying drawmgs.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a bedof the type described.

FIG. 2 is a side elevation of one side guard and associ ated structureat one side of the bed, drawn to a larger scale than FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a detail of one end of the side guard and its supportstructure.

FIG. 4 is an elevational view partly in section, of the end frame at theleft of FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is a detail vertical section of line 55 of FIG. 1 and is drawn toa larger scale than FIG. 1.

FIG. 6 is a detail horizontal section on line 6-6 of FIG. 1 and drawn tothe scale of FIG. 5.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The bedstead includes end framemembers 1 and 2 at head and foot respectively. One of the end framemembers will be equipped with the lift mechanism described below. Ifdesired, both end members may be similarly equipped. End frame member 2has upright square tubular posts 5 connected by a hollow square tubulartop cross piece 6 and a lower cross piece 7. Journaled in 3,548,426Patented Dec. 22, 1970 top piece 6 is an elongated rod 10 (FIG. 4)threaded in opposite directions from its middle toward its oppositeends. correspondingly threaded nuts 11, 12 are mounted on the rod andare held against rotation by their fit within the cross piece. As therod is rotated by a detachable handle 13 (applicable to either end ofthe rod), the nuts are fed along the rod. A cable 15 is attached to eachnut and extends over a sheave 16, journaled on the end frame member, andthen downwardly to a clip 17 at its lower end received in recesses inthe side of a block 20 slidable in post 5. A plate bracket 22 (FIG. 6)is secured to block 20 by a pin 21 and projects through a slot in onewall of a hollow post 5 and then extends alongside another wall of thepost and has a post hook member 24 welded to it. A carrier for the usualbed spring 25 and mattress 26 includes spaced side rails 27 (FIG. 1) andend rails 28 rigid therewith. A corner plate 29 secured to each end ofeach side rail '27 (FIG. 5) has one or more commonly used fingers 30inserted in post hook 24.

Guard support structure is mounted on each corner plate 29 and includesan upper jaw 31 (FIG. 5) hooked over the top edge of the corner plateand is provided with a rigid offset sleeve 32 slidable on an upright 33having a lateral flange 34 on its lower end forming a lower jaw of thestructure. A bolt 35, with a hand nut 36, draws jaws 31 and 34 towardeach other to clamp them to corner plate 29 between them. Upright 33mounts a bracket (FIG. 3) comprising a sleeve part 38 and a hinge part39 pi-votally connected by a horizontal pin 40. A latch 41 is pivoted atP on part 38 and is biased by a spring S toward the upright to enter aselected slot in the latter and holds the bracket at a desired height.The latch may be disengaged by manual pressure on its lower end toadjust the bracket on the upright.

A horizontal elongated safety side guard is mounted on spaced brackets38, 39 at opposite ends of the bed and includes top, bottom andintermediate sections 42, 43, 44 telescoping so that the side guard maybe shortened or lengthened to extend horizontally as shown in FIG. 1, ormay be inclined from the horizontal as shown in FIG. 2.

The side guard may be raised or lowered independently of the spring andmattress by ready adjustment of brackets 38, 39 on uprights 33 or, sinceuprights 33 are mounted on side rails 27, the side guard may be raisedor lowered with the spring and mattress when one or more handles 13 areoperated.

Each side guard and its support structure, including elements 31, 32,33, 34, 35, 36, comprises a unit readily applied to or removed from thebed side rail and the guard is adjustable vertically irrespective of theseparately adjustable mechanism on the bed frame for the spring andmattress support structure. The ease of adjusting these separatelyactuated devices and their combination facilitates attention to theoccupant of the bed under ditficult conditions which otherwise mightcause inconvenience and handling or servicing.

The details of the structure may be varied substantially withoutdeparting from the spirit of the invention and the exclusive use ofmodifications coming within the scope of the claims is contemplated.

I claim:

1. In a hospital-type bed, the combination of a bedstead including endframes and a side rail extending between said end frames, there beingvertically adjustable members mounted on said end frames and supportingthe adjacent portions of said side rail, rotatable crankshaft mechanismfor adjusting said memgers vertically, a rigid spring-carrying frameextending between said end frames and above the side rail and mounted onthe latter, a side guard extending lengthwise of the bedstead outboardof said side rail and above the level thereof, and

3 means mounted on said side rail and supporting said side guard at aselected height independently of said spring-carrying frame.

2. The combination described in claim 1 in which the side guard supportmeans includes an upright secured directly to the side railindependently of the end frames, and a guard-mounting bracket adjustablevertically on said upright.

3. The combination described in claim 2 in which the mounting of theside guard on the upright includes a pivot joint on which the side guardmay tilt from the vertical to accommodate inclination of the side guardfrom a horizontal position lengthwise of the bed irrespective ofvertical adjustment of either end of the spring-mattress carrying frame.

4. The combination described in claim 1 in which the support for theside guard includes an upright having a fixed laterally-projectingflange near its lower end, there being a sleeve slidable on the uprightabove said flange, a downwardly facing extension on said sleeve opposingand spaced from said flange, and means for clamping the side railbetween said flange and said extension to secure the upright to the railindependently of the end frame.

5. The combination as described in claim 3 in which the means forclamping the side rail between the flange and the sleeve extensioncomprises a pair of vertically spaced jaws mounted on and extendinglaterally from the lower end portion of the upright, and threaded meansfor positively moving the jaws of each pair toward each other forclamping.

6. In a hospital-type bed, the combination of a bedstead including endframes and a side rail extending between said end frames, there beingvertically adjustable members mounted on said end frames and supportingthe adjacent portions of said side rails, a rigid spring-carrying memberextending between said end frames and above said side rail and mountedon the latter, a side guard extending lengthwise of the bedsteadoutboard of said side rail and above the level thereof, an uprightmember secured to said side rail, a guard-mounting bracket slidablevertically on said upright member and mechanism for adjusting the heightof the side rail comprising a threaded rod journaled in an end frame, anut on said rod held against rotation in said end frame but slidablealong the same, there being a hand crank for rotating said rod andthereby moving said nut along said end frame and a cable secured at oneend to the nut and at the other end to the spring-carrying frame.

7. A hospital-type bed as described in claim 6 in which the side rail,spring-carrying member, side guard and bracket are duplicated atopposite sides of the bed and the threaded rod is disposed horizontallyand extends transversely of an end frame and has portions threaded inopposite directions at opposite sides of its midlength, there being anindividual nut threaded on each rod portion, and an individual cableconnected to each of said nuts and extending from the same alongside therod to the adjacent side of the bed and then over a sheave and downwardly to the adjacent side rail.

8. A hospital bed as described in claim 6 in which the elongated rod isdisposed horizontally in the end frame and has portions threaded inopposite directions at opposite sides of its midlength, there being acorrespondingly threaded nut on each rod portion, and an individualcable connecting each nut to a side rail at one side of the bed andparralleling the horizontally extending rod.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,295,483 2/1919 Haas 5-3311,482,439 2/ 1924 McCollough 5-64UX 2,652,574 9/1953 Toomey 5-63X2,658,207 11/1953 Robbins 5-63X 2,871,490 2/1959 Balonick 5-3312,872,688 2/ 1959 Reichert et al. 5-63 3,039,118 6/1962 Hutt 5-633,179,957 4/1965 Norton 5-331 3,220,023 11/1965 Dewey 5-331 3,373,4533/1968 Goodman 5-63 FOREIGN PATENTS 666,373 7/1963 Canada 5-331 DENNISL. TAYLOR, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 5-100

